


Halo: The Spartan age

by Eclipsephoenix



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Conquest, F/F, F/M, Harems, Multi, Sex, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:34:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28668555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eclipsephoenix/pseuds/Eclipsephoenix
Summary: It has been 15 years since the Battle on the ark. Now awoken, John finds himself in a galaxy at war. Human and Alien factions fight for control in a power vacuum left by the destruction of the Covenant and UNSC. With is former loyalties gone, the galaxy at war, the Chief now needs to decide if he's human or machine.
Relationships: Cortana/John-117 | Master Chief, John-117 | Master Chief/Original Character(s), John-117 | Master Chief/Parisa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

Cortana looked at John for the millionth time. She was getting very lonely now and debated once again whether or not to wake him. It had been around 5 years since he put himself into cryo, and they still didn't seem to have been found. To occupy her time, she rewrote his armour's firmware, but it was a trivial matter compared to taking out a halo ring, or the Ark. She sighed and decided to take a look at the ships systems again, she had nothing better to do.

Weapons were offline, life support was good so was gravity but then she got to the external sensors, she picked up something. She ran them again and still what there was she was amazed. There was something out there, from the silhouette it seemed to be a UNSC frigate. They were going to get saved, but something was off. Communications were down so she couldn't hail them, thinking about it she accessed one of the external camera's and zoomed to get a better look at the ship.

It was a Paris-class frigate but what shocked her was that there was no UNSC markings on it. Instead there was a star which had a chevron in the middle of it with cross swords behind it. Her mind began to buzz, was it an insurrectionist ship? Too many questions flooded her mind as the frigate turned to face the ship. She bit her lip and moved over to the pedestal in front of Chief and tried to start the awakening protocol, but nothing happened. She tried again, but again nothing happened.

"C…." she tried to say, but her system began to fracture. "N…no…" she muttered as she realised what was happening. "N… not….nn…nnooww…" he voice began to fracture as well.

Her holographic form collapsed on the pedestal as she tried to keep her thoughts in check. But nothing worked, she was going rampant. Her mind was tearing itself apart weather she liked it or not. The door opened and a group of four red and black ODST troopers walked in.

"Eyes on package," one said as they walked up to the pedestal in front of the cryopods.

"N…n…oooo…." Cortana muttered as the four moved up.

But her mind was too far gone as one of them pulled her chip out. "Package secured," one said before looking up at the frozen form of Spartan 117. "What about him?" he asked.

"Command said to leave him," the lead soldier said. "We have no need of him," and with that the four troopers left.

10 years later.

Captain Takuma sighed as he sipped his coffee while his eyes looked across the black landscape of space. What he wouldn't do to change everything and just live the life he used to back on earth. But now he was just another ship cutter Captain now.

"Sir," a voice said cutting his thinking short. "We're picking up a distress beacon,"

"Old channels?" Takuma asked.

"Yes, sir but…" the comms officer trailed off,"

"But what?" the Captain asked impatiently.

"Well listen," the officer said as she turned on the speakers.

"U…C Fo…d…U…Dawn…." The voice said almost making Takuma drop his cupper.

"Is that?" he slowly asked but the officer just nodded.

"Old UNSC frequencies, IFF and everything," she confirmed.

"Set course, alert the Federation," he ordered.

The bridge crew did as ordered setting course for their destination. It didn't take long for them to reach what was left of the old Charon-class frigate. The flight didn't take them that long, but it felt like an eternity for the crew. As they travelled several members of the crew headed to the armoury, while they were a salvage ship a general rule of thumb was that all ships be armed to some degree. Both handheld and ship-based weapons were placed almost every ship. But these were only meant to make the attacker think twice while the ship jumped.

Takuma and a group of 7 other crewmen fitted some armoured webbing on as well as loading up on civilian weapons. Mostly variations of the MA3A, but with a shorted magazine and a semi-auto only function. A couple of them armed themselves with the M7 smg which had a longer barrel and a burst fire function. Once they equipped themselves, Takuma turned to one of his crew.

"Gunny, your call," he said.

Gunny nodded and looked to the people before him. The man was a former marine in the UNSC and was hired in order to conduct military style operations. He was happy with that and taught some of the crew basic tactics and drills.

"Ok listen up," he said getting them to their best standing at attention stance. "We're going to be splitting into two groups," he pointed at a woman with long silver hair. "Rani, you take group two while I take group one," as he spoke, she nodded. "Good," he said as turned the light off and activated a screen behind him that showed scans of the Forward Unto Dawn. "The ship has been cut in two, likely by the collapse of the portal it went though. But we have detected power signatures here," he pointed towards the lower end of the ship where a cryo bay was. "And here," he then moved his hand toward the upper back of the ship. "This one is the generator, and is still powered by the ships solar panels. Which probably means that no one's been here in the past few years,"

"Sir," an Asian man raised his hand. "Is… is he here?" he asked. "That first signature could be him,"

Gunny nodded. "My thoughts too, but we don't know if the AI or someone else laid traps here. Which is why team one will head to the secondary command station," he pointed to a section close to the middle of the ship. "To check the ship for any foreign objects. Team two will head up to the generator room and wait for word to cut power. We cannot have anyone else finding him,"

Nods echoed across the room as the comms officer came on over the intercom. "Takuma, just got word from the Federation, they are sending one of their fastest ships as well as the Wolf Corps," that last part sent shivers down their spine.

"Holy fuck," one of the members muttered. "Them? they must need him that badly,"

"Given the situation the Federation's in…." another said. "It's not that surprising. Not to mention one of the others will send in their own Spartans. Aside from the fours, almost every Spartan knows and respects him. They are his family, in a way and will follow them if someone else found him first,"

"The Empire, Atlas, The Victorian Union, Greater Human Republics…." she trailed off naming the others. "All have at least a few dozen older Spartans,"

"True enough," Takuma said as he looked at his tablet seeing the message the Federation sent him. "They've asked us to secure and claim the salvage until Wolf Corps get here. Their orders are not to open any of the cryo pods. In return we get 50 million, each,"

At the sound of that, their eyes went wide. "50 million?" Gunny asked. "Wow, they must need him badly,"

"Of course," Rani said. "He is the hero of humanity after all,"

Several nodded at that before Gunny looked to the screen. "Ok then, change of plan. Team two, secure the generator room. If it's not us, or Wolf Corps shoot to kill,"

OOOOO

The Dire-Wolf, a heavily modified Paris-class frigate sped through slip-space as the crew inside monitored the ships systems. The ship wasn't meant for major space battles, but instead was used for harassing ships and deploying Spartans down to the ground. While there was a crew, it was made with the intent of having as few crew members as possible. Its crew was made up entirely of Spartans, mostly threes and fours with very few twos on board. After all, no more than 33 of the original 75 survived.

One of the twos stood in the bridge looking out at slip-space while two Spartans in front of her piloted the ship. She wore a brown set of modified MK VI armour with some parts coming from the MK V armour she was so used to. An ODST style helmet sat under her arm, unlike others this had a large metal place that covered most of the visor. But it still allowed for her to see though it like she normally would.

Her chest rig was fitted with four pouches, one on her right side, two on the left and one on the middle. A large rectangular flat panel sat on her left shoulder almost reaching her elbow while her other had little other than a pouch for few extra sniper rounds. With her helmet off, she could be mistaken for a twenty or thirty-year-old. But this was due to the augmentations she had, she aged slowly. Which didn't matter to her, after all she was a Spartan, a soldier made for war.

"We'll be arriving in a few moments," a voice then said making her turn to see Roland on the holo-table.

"Order pack one to be ready," she said as she walked off the bridges. "Commander, you have the bridge,"

"Yes sir," a Spartan in black armour said as he pulled himself off the chair he was on and walked up to the holo-table.

The brown armoured Spartan made her way to the hanger where three other Spartans waited for her by a pelican drop-ship. Two of them were threes while the other two were fours. As she walked up the group stood and saluted.

"So, we finally found him?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, the plan is to go in, turn off the beacon and extract before anyone else comes," she said as the ship lurched a bit as it comes out of slip-space.

"Capitan," a voice called making the brown armoured Spartan turn.

A woman, 6,11 women walked up to the group. While she was a Spartan, she wasn't in her armour due to her large pregnant belly. So instead she wore a black officer uniform, minus the cap.

"If he's there, I think it may be best if I come along," she offered.

"Not in your condition," the Capitan pointed out. "But don't worry, you'll get to explain everything to him with Roland,"

The woman nodded and saluted. "Thank you, sir," she said before walking off.

"Everyone on the Pelican," the Capitan ordered.

The others nodded before a voice came on in the Captains ear. "Sir we may have a problem,"

"What is it?" she replied.

"That scavenger ship? I'm not picking up any signals from them," the commander said. "I tried to hail them three times but got nothing,"

"Understood," the Captain said as she walked onto the pelican while fitting her helmet on.

OOOOO

The pelican landed in the hanger of the ship. The magnetic locks from the pelican attached to the hull allowing it to stay stable as the ramp lowered. The team of five moved out onto the deck weapons raised. The Captain pulled the charging handle on her battle rifle as the other four moved out before she followed them. After checking the area was clear the team moved up to the airlock. There was an expectation that it was going to open up, but it didn't as they moved.

It didn't matter much to them as one of them moved up to it. He pulled out the control panel and began to rewire the system, the door opened after a few moments of waiting. But something exited, making the five back up. A light green mist exited the airlock as it reached them, their sensors went off.

"Oh shit," one of the Spartans muttered. "Flood spores,"

"Well, we know what happened to that scav team," another muttered as the Captain hit her comm.

"Dire-Wolf, come in," she said.

"I got you Six," the commander said.

"We have detected Flood spores," she said in a calm tone while she and the others walked into the airlock.

"Understood," the commander replied. "Preparing mac nuke,"

"Ok, so I assume that means we don't go after the beacon?" another of the Spartans asked.

"You assume rightly," Six said. "This just became a smash and grab op,"

OOOOO

The sound of noise met his hears before his vision returned to him. Despite his temperature-controlled suit, he could still feel the cold as he began to thaw. His vision soon returned to him as he spied five Spartans, three were threes, but he didn't recognise the armour of the other two. His mind moved, judging what to do. He was expecting Cortana to wake him, why didn't she? Feeling began to return to his body as gunfire began to echo and his eyes widened as a combat form came charging down the corridor only to get cut down by the fire of the other Spartans.

Soon the tell tail hiss of the cryopod sounded as it opened up. Once opened he stood grabbing his weapon.

"Chief," the brown armoured Spartan said as she approached him. "Good to finally meet you, unfortunately explanations have to wait. We have ships incoming,"

John looked her up and down, granted he didn't know what to expect, but

"The Covenant?" John asked but the Spartan shook her head.

"No, humans but it would take a while to explain," she said as she fired her battle rifle at an incoming combat form. "A while we don't have,"

John nodded. "Lead the way," he said.

"Six to Dire-wolf, package is secured, heading towards extraction," she said as she took point with the others behind her.

"Understood Six, bare in mind we have incoming Atlas ships," the commander replied, to which Six swore.

"Double time it," she ordered leading the way.

Thankfully, there were few flood forms to deal with. But that didn't mean much, from his experience John knew that they could be hiding anywhere. Soon enough they made it to the hanger only to find they were not alone. Three Spartans and a group of ODST's waited for them. the Chief thought that these Spartans were here to help but as soon as they saw each other, Six and her team raised their weapons at the newcomers.

His eyes moved to the prowler docked to the side of the ship. It wasn't a surprise why they didn't get a warning about guests, but he still didn't understand why Spartans were fighting each other. He turned his gaze back to the newcomers. There was a uniformity among them. The three Spartans wore white and blue armour with the lead armed with a metal shield locked to his left arm. The handle of what appeared to be a sword was in his other hand, did they figure out energy sword technology?

"Hand over the Master Chief Six," the lead Spartan ordered.

"This place is crawling with flood," Six shot back. "If you don't want to get infected, I suggest you leave now,"

"Not without 117," the Spartan said his tone being sternly mechanical.

John focused his eyes on the Spartan in front of him. The only question he could ask, what is going on here?

Before he could ask, one of Six's Spartans threw a thermal grenade. It exploded in mid-air showering the ODST's with fire causing them to scream out as they tried to put out the fire. But the weapons burned them so much, that they soon stopped moving. After the grenade was thrown, the lead Spartans changed at each other. The white ones moved into cover where they could get an upper hand on the others, while Six's Spartans split into two groups. To focus on both teams. John held back, not wanting to open fire at anyone until he knew what was going on.

Instead he moved into cover watched as Six and the shield Spartan moved against each other. As they moved, the shield Spartan activated the hilt which extended outward into a light blue sword, similar to that of elite energy swords. As he moved in, he swung the weapon which Six moved with ease, she then slammed the but of her weapon against the side of his head causing him to stubble. He responded with a shield bash sending her stumbling backwards into a tack of crates.

"SIX!" one of her Spartans yelled and charged in.

Armed with his shotgun, he tried to move in as fast as possible to use it to its full effect.

"Wait!" Six yelled, but she was too late as the shield Spartan spun and removed the Spartan's head.

"Bastard!" Six growled as she pulled out her grenade launcher and fired.

The shield Spartan moved to lift up his shield, but that didn't mean much as the blast and EMP caused him to back up and stay behind his shield. This allowed Six to move in and dive a knife into his ribs. He yelled out in pain and dropped his shield, with that weight gone, he moved fast to try and hit Six, who moved out of the way quickly. She then dropped kicked him into a warthog before throwing a grenade next to him.

It detonated destroying the vehicles and taking the Spartan with them. The final two enemy Spartans just looked at each other before retreating back to the prowler. As they did Six's Spartans moved up to their pelican and began to take off. While they were John walked up to Six, he needed answers.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"Your valuable Chief," she said. "But like I said, I cannot explain right now. We need to destroy the Dawn,"

"I'm not leaving without Cortana," he insisted.

"She's not here," Six replied. "I can explain, but we need to go now,"

John weighed his options before nodding. "Fine," he said keeping to what he'll do if Six didn't explain to himself.

The bordered the pelican as the ramp began to close. Once it did, the pilot disabled the mag-locks and the drop-ship took off into space and headed towards the Dire-Wolf. As they got closer, the frigate fired a mac round destroying the Dawn. The pelican flew into the hanger and set down. John then felt the all too familiar jerk of entering slip-space. As the ramp lowered Six pulled off her helmet allowing John to get a good look at her.

She had short black hair with a row of eyebrow piercings along her left eyebrow and a tribal tattoo across the right side of her face. A scar ran across her face, by the look of it, it seemed to be from an elite's energy sword.

"I know I said I'll explain everything, but I'll let her to that," she indicated to a pregnant woman standing in front of the ramp.

John's eyes widened as he looked to the woman standing in front of him. "Kelly," he said slowly and walked up to her.

"Hello John," Kelly smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

August 30th 2552 Reach.

Six looked out at the blasted landscape as she slid her helmet on and cocked her assault rifle. She had always been like this, alone out in the wild. It was better that way, no one else to look after, no one else to worry about. She walked down the ramp keeping her ears open for the Covenant. In the fog, she could see them. Their shapes blurred by the fog, but she cud make them out thanks to two sets of enhanced vision. Her helmet, and augments. Cracking her neck, she charged in.

Plasma shot around her; needles flew through the air. She didn't care as she fought all she cared was payback. Her weapon barked as she charged into a group of elites and managed to take two of them down, at the cost of her helmet's visor. She pulled it off and tossed it to one side as the elites began to surround her. Another one fell as she was pushed down to the floor. She pushed him off as they descended on her with their swords.

Picking up her pistol she fired it off at one the elites, it's shields fell and a round hit its head blowing it's brains out. It fell down dead as another on descended on her. A loud crack sounded and that one fell two. Two more shots echoed in her ears followed by gunfire. The elites pulled back and Six stood to see two Spartans walk out of the fog followed by a mix of militiamen and UNSC marines. Civilians also followed them, some armed others not.

They approached Six carefully keeping their weapons at the ready. "Name and rank," one asked.

"Specialist Erica B312, Noble team," she said. "But most people call me Six,"

"I'm Sargent Kai B165, just call me Kai," the Spartan in green said before he indicated to his partner. "This is Dan B249, he doesn't speak much,"

Six nodded. "Where you headed?" she asked.

"There's a Spaceport to the west," one of the marines said. "We hope to find a space ship there that can take all of us,"

"How many of you are there?"

"A good hundred, maybe more," Kai responded. "Care to join us?"

Six looked to a dead Spartan. She walked over to it and pulled his helmet off.

"Sure," she said as she dusted the helmet of the dust. "Space port's this way," she said and lead the way.

OOOOO Present.

John shook his head as he thought he was seeing things. But no, Kelly was standing in front of him supporting a pregnant belly. Even more questions flooded his mind as he slowly walked off the pelican looking her up and down, unsure what to say.

"Speechless?" she asked. "Not surprising, I mean you've been asleep for a long time. Now you are awake to see your metaphorical sister pregnant. How could you not be?"

In spite of himself, John smiled. It seemed like Kelly had changed, but not by much.

"I'm happy for you," he said. "But I thought it was impossible for us to have children,"

"ONI bullshit," Six said as she cracked her neck.

"Yeah, turns out we can. But there are a few complications," Kelly said as she turned and made her way to the lift with Six and John. "Not surprising given the augmentation,"

"You said that you were going to tell me what was going on," John then said looking at Six.

"Kelly," Six said, "He trusts you, you tell him," she said as the lift stopped and Six exited.

Kelly sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Follow me," she said as she walked out with John following her. "The year you went into cryo it was 2552, the year is 2567. You were in cryo for 15 years, John," she said as she walked into the bridge.

"15 years?" John asked slightly confused. "Why didn't Cortana wake me?" he asked as he followed her.

"Because she couldn't," Six said as she looked over a holotable "Smart AI's have a life of seven years before they go rampant and useless. Cortana was no exception to that rule,"

"And there's no way to stop it," Kelly added. "Until 10 years ago when the Empire found a way,"

"Empire?" John asked looking between the two. "What Empire?"

Kelly took a deep breath; she needed all the strength she could muster. "After the battle for the Ark, the UNSC fell apart," she said slowly allowing John to absorb what she said.

"What?" was all he asked after a moment.

"Roland," Six said and the hologram of an AI in a bomber uniform stood on the holotable. "Show the Chief Earth,"

"On it," he said and an image of earth appeared.

John stared at the image in shock. He was expecting to see a green and blue ball, but instead his eyes gazed on a black and brown charred rock. In his mind he had now doubt what happened, there was only one question he could ask.

"How did this happen?" he asked.

"15 years ago, after the war a whistle blower at ONI put up everything. The Spartan program, the flood, the Forerunners. Every little dirty piece in ONI's closet was pushed out into the open," Roland said feeling pleased with himself. "It caused massive and widespread hate towards the UNSC, UEF and ONI. In fact, it almost turned into a civil why just by the leaking of information,"

"Because of what was leaked," Six began. "Many both in the inner colonies and outer colonies began to call for the dismissal of ONI. Hell even a few places seceded from the UEG altogether with the what was left of the UNSC in those areas,"

"It quickly turned into a civil war within a month," Kelly added. "What was still loyal to the UNSC and the UEG tried to re-establish control while trying to hold ONI accountable and get them to push something out so they didn't lose control,"

"And that's were the Spartan Rebellion began," Roland chipped in. "With the successionists growing, ONI pushed out Spartan IV, their last attempt. But there was a problem. With the lack of oversight and something going wrong with the augmentations, many Spartans defected and created their own empires from these successionist states. Mostly from the threes and fours. It would appear that the augmentation in the fours was flawed and gave them a sense of ego and power. With that, after ONI deployed them those Spartans took over and began to fight against the UNSC and others," as he spoke, Roland presented a visual map about what happed.

John just started at the holotable trying to take everything in. That was easier said than done, his own Spartan brother and sisters turning on the UNSC. For some reason, his brain couldn't accept that fact.

"How did earth get destroyed?" he asked, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

"The Flood," Kelly answered with a very angry tone. "During the purge of Voi, a Flood spore managed to get lose. Someone got infected and it spread across the planet during the Spartan Rebellion. With the civil war going on, no one noticed it at first but then Lord Hood found out. But by then it was already too late to contain,"

"Lord Hood then activated Earth's nuclear arsenal," Six said. "He destroyed the parasite, as well as the UNSC, UEG and ONI. What was left of them was claimed by the Warlords. Since then, the war charged from a civil war to a war of power between the different Warlords and factions,"

John took a moment and removed his helmet making some people turn to look at him before getting back to work, but they occasionally took a glance at the legend. John did take off his helmet every now and again, but those times when he wasn't in the presence of Spartans was rare. His pale skin almost sighed in the light and his short brown hair was unkempt. Despite his stoic appearance, Kelly could see how this was affecting him. He, like her, had spent all his life fighting for the UNSC. But to hear everything you knew was taken away, that was never easy to hear.

"So…" he began looking around. "Which faction are you with?"

"What was left of the UNSC at Sol headed to Mars. We understood that the UNSC was dead, so what was left of us and still 'loyal', if you want to use the term, knew we had to form out own faction to fight back. Try to keep the idea of a unified government alive from Sol," Kelly answered. "We call ourselves the Martian Federation with Mars as out new Capital. Our leader is President Parisa, she's a four. One of the few who remained loyal during the rebellion,"

"What about the other factions?" John then asked.

"Aside from us, there's almost about 3 dozen," Roland said as he pulled up a map of what was previously human controlled space. "But since that would take too long, I'll just list the big ones. The Empire is the biggest faction in terms of territory. They are the ones who figured out the cure for AI rampancy. But how they are not telling anyone and use a networked system of AI called the 'Hive' to conduct military operations," he then changed the image to a large galactic map and showed the Chief the area's the Warlords held. "Little is known about their structure outside of the military. We have no idea about their goals or who rules them. Many of the captives we get from the Empire kill themselves before divulging any intel,"

"The second most powerful is the Atlas Republic," Six said. "They are the ones who we faced today," as she spoke Roland's map changed to an image of a female spartan with brown hair. "This, is Supreme Commander Sarah Palmer, the leader of Atlas. She's a four, and has a good 200 Spartans on her side. She rules Atlas with an iron fist and treats the other Spartans as a form of nobility. She believes in the innate superiority of Spartans and treats everyone who isn't one like dirt," Six then spat on the floor in disgust. "She burned and entire city to the ground because of rebels and slaughtered their families. You are not a person, if you aren't a Spartan in her eyes,"

"They are also the most technologically Advanced," Kelly added to try and keep Six from venting even more. "Most of their scientists are former ONI, and they have quite the stash of Covenant tech that they are researching. It gives them better shields and access to better weaponry,"

"They also have an Infinity-class ship, the Eternity," Roland added as he showed one of the largest ships John had ever seen. "It's also her main command ship. No planetary invasion is complete without it hanging overhead, it's a symbol of her authority,"

John nodded as he looked at the ship. It would be hard to take down, but his mind already raced thinking about the possibilities.

"The next is the Victorian Union," Six said and the image changed back to the map.

"Victorian?" John asked. "I assume they are from the planet Victoria?" he got nods of confirmation. "I thought we lost contact with that planet,"

"We did," Kelly said. "But it turns out there was a reason for that. After our raid in 2531, it turns out that the population was just left to its own devices. They used it to becomes pirates and establish a small empire of their own. When the UNSC fell, they quickly began to take what they could and expand further. It was a largely stealth operation, something that they seem to specialise in. While they have the smallest of the major factions, that doesn't stop them from being powerful,"

Six nodded that that. "They are rich and trade in both tech an intelligence. It makes them hard to target as well due to that. Most of their intel agents are former ONI, so they know how to make themselves scarce if found out. Not to mention they are one of only a few factions not to be led by a Spartan,"

Kelly nodded at that. "The final group is the Greater Human Republics," the map then changed to a section of the map.

This section had a hard border, but the inside was divided up into different coloured sections. "Why is it like that?" John asked, "Divided?"

"That's because they are made up of the rebel factions," Roland said. "They are united under a common cause. Each territory is under the control of one or more worlds. Each world is considered a sovereign nation, but they have a mutual defence pact. If one territory is attacked, all are attacked. They are what remains of the United Rebel Front,"

"A union of independent republics who answer to no one," Six muttered. "Just what they always wanted. The problem is that while they are strong, there are factions within the GHR who seek to control more territory if not the whole of the faction itself," she shook her head. "It's amazing how long they managed to stay like that these past years,"

"And that's it for the major factions," Roland said as the map disappeared. "The rest are squabbling over what territory they can get their hands on,"

"What about the Covenant?" John asked.

The thee looked to one another. "That's another matter John," Kelly said as she brought up the map and indicated a large purple section next to the Warlords map. "We've identified at least four factions with the fallen Covenant empire. The Storm Covenant, Abiding Truth, Swords of Sanghelios and the Banished. Out of all of them, only the Swords of Sanghelios don't attack human colonies unless attacked first. The Arbiter still keeps in communication with us. But… the rest of the factions are hard to predict. Most of the time we can't tell which one is which," she sighed. "Only the Banished can easily be identified due to their, brutish machines. But even they have fractured. It's hard to tell where the lines are with them," she took another sigh. "Two fractured empires, fighting over the remains. This is why I quit being a Spartan,"

"You quit?" John asked surprised.

Kelly nodded. "I just…" she sighed. "When the UNSC collapsed, it was hard to know who to fight for. Not just me, but the rest of the twos. We gave our lives for a military that no longer existed. All of us, lost unknown what to do. Some of us just left, by the time I figured out what I wanted to do, two years had passed. Two years of just living like a normal human. Now, I don't fight unless I have to. I support by Spartan brothers and sisters on the ground. I fight my own way on my own terms. And it's been like that since I joined the Federal Army,"

"Most of the twos have gone John," Six added. "Where? We don't know, maybe off to find themselves. We both know what the twos went though, that kind of indoctrination destroys a person. When something like the UNSC, you swore to protect and die for, dies itself. That void is something that can never be fulfilled. But ones like Fed, Kelly and Linda have stayed with the Federation. We do have word about twos being in high positions within some of the other factions training new Spartans. But that's about it,"

"How many twos in the Federation?" John asked.

"Including you, Kelly, Fred and Linda, twelve," Six answered. "Six in combat roles, three in supporting and three retired,"

"Fred and Linda are on their own mission at the moment John," Kelly said. "You'll see them when they get back. They'll be happy to see you,"

John nodded as he looked at the map in front of him unsure what to make of all of the news that had been dumped on him. Spartan or not, it was a lot to take in. This was one of those times were words where lost on him.

"I… I need to process this," he said.

Six nodded. "I have a room ready for. Kelly, if you please,"

"Sir," Kelly saluted and lead John out as he fitted his helmet back on.

Six looked to her command team. "What are you all gawking at?" she asked. "Get back to work," the team smiled as they turned back to their terminals, the wars had just begun.

OOOOO A box canyon.

"GRIFF!" Sarge yelled as he got up and recovered his shotgun. "That was the worst flying I've ever seen,"

"Because that wasn't flying," Griff replied as he patted out a fire on his ass. "That was crashing and burning! Can someone get me some water!"

"Did someone get the licence plate of that boulder?" Tucker asked in a dazed state before meeting a wall. "Ow…" he muttered before falling back.

"Remind me never to let Griff fly again," Carolina muttered as she crawled out of a river.

"Hummm…." Simmons muttered as he looked around. "We seem to trapped,"

"Trapped?" Church asked as he walked up to the cyborg. "Wh…" he stopped looking around. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he cried out falling to his knees.


	3. Chapter 3

September 2nd 2552 Reach.

Six sat outside a cave and looked over a map that one of the locals had. They needed to make a decision on what to do. There was a short rout in the north to the spaceport, but it was dangerous which meant that they had leave the sick, old and young. But she wasn't going to do that. She did that once to many times to do it again. The screams of the dead that she left behind still haunted her as she slept.

Which meant that there was one other option. To the east was an abandoned UNSC base that would still have vehicles inside. Trucks, warthogs, mongooses' along with supplies and weapons. Even if they made it to the spaceport, that didn't mean that they would have enough supplies to survive on. She sighed as she got up and walked into the cave were over a hundred people sat around camp fires.

A few looked to her as she passed and walked up to the leader's fire. The leaders were made up of Kai, the civilian leader Rose, a former head for a small company and Major Lee, the 'military' leader.

"I've been going over the plans in my head," Six said as she sat down. "I think we should go for the base,"

"Why?" Kai asked. "We have baggage, let's dump them,"

"Let her speak," Rose said with a nod from Lee.

"It's not about the baggage," Six said. "It's about the supplies. How long are we going to ask without food? Water? Medicine? Basic necessities, we don't even know if the ship has any supplies on board,"

"You make a good point, Six," Lee nodded. "We do need supplies,"

"What we need to do is get off Reach," Kai insisted.

"And I agree," Six said. "But we need to look at the bigger picture here," she indicated to the people in the cave. "Regardless of baggage we have people to feed and water. How are we expected to escape in a ship that probably has nothing?"

Kai sighed and fell silent. "We need to get of Reach, if we go to the base, and get supplies that means that the Covenant will find us and kill us. The sooner we get off this planet the better,"

"If I might add," Rose said making heads to turn to her. "What if we split the group? One group goes and secure the ship and brings it over to the base?"

The three military officers fell silent. "Well, the problem is that it would attract attention," Lee said. "Don't get me wrong it's a good idea but…" he trailed off.

"There's more that goes into starting a spaceship," Kai said. "But that may not be such a bad idea, we can split the group," Six nodded at that.

"That's not a bad plan," she muttered looking at the map. "If you take a contingent of marines and spaceship engineers to the port, you can try and get the ship working while I take the rest over to the base and get as many supplies as possible,"

Lee nodded at that. "Makes sense," he muttered. "But you need a contingent of soldiers as well,"

"I know, but we'd also have former civilian militia with my group," Six said. "I think we can manage with that," she nodded. "But there's one question that comes to mind, where do we go?"

That made the group fall silent as they looked to one another. "Well Earth of course," Kai said.

Lee shook his head. "No, I don't know about the rest of you but I'm done with the UNSC,"

That got him a deathly glare from Kai. "That's treason,"

"That's my feelings," the Major said. "The UNSC abandoned us here, here, Reach. Their proud fortress world. No evac orders, nothing, just left us to defend ourselves,"

Six and Rose nodded. "Now is not the time to get divided," Erica said. "Now is the time to unite and get off this planet," she sighed. "But since we all agree on the split, that's what we should do,"

"Let's get the groups organised," Six said as she stood with Lee and Rose and walked over to the refugees.

Kai watched them before standing and walked over to the entrance were Dan stood. "We have a plan, but we may have to take out a few traitors," he said earning himself a look from Dan. "Just be ready," he said before walking away.

OOOOO Present

As Kelly escorted John, the Chief looked at the flag of a wolf hanging from one of the walls. "What's with the wolf?" he asked.

"It's our emblem," Kelly smiled. "Not of Mars, but of the Spartans. Mars has 180 Spartans under its command. This ship, the Dire wolf, is our command base," she shrugged. "Not quite what we are used to but it serves our purposes for being a rapid deployment force,"

"So, it's been modified?" John asked.

"Yes, to be faster and lighter," Kelly nodded. "We're a special response unit, not an assault unit. So, we've had to ditch quite a few things,"

John nodded and fell silent; he didn't know what to ask. This new age just seemed alien to him that even after everything was said to him, he still couldn't process it all. Soon they arrived at one of the cabins. The two walked in and looked around.

"This is where you'll be staying for now," Kelly said. "A bit small, but all of us have to deal with similar sized rooms. "Feel free to roam around the ship. The ships mess is available at any time, other than that… well just the normal rules and regulations of the ship," she shrugged.

"Thanks Kelly," John removed his helmet and turned to her. "I…" he tried to say but came up short.

Kelly walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder. "I know, I've been here. Just take your time. Fred, Linda, Kai, August, Adriana, Victor and the others. We all took our time to decide what we were going to do. I'm here to talk if you need it,"

John looked to her trying to avoid smiling. "Thank you," he said as he sat on the bed. "I… I agree, I need time,"

"Not a problem, just call if you need," she said as she left. "Get some sleep, you'll need it," as she said that the door closed leaving John to his thoughts.

But the Spartan just looked at his reflection in his helmet. "What would you advise me to do?" he asked.

OOOOO 2 days later.

John walked onto the deck of the bridge as the Dire-wolf exited slipspace. As soon as they did warning lights for lock on came on. The screen above the bridge activated and a short-bearded man appeared.

"Unidentified ship, this is Cairo station, we have target lock on you. Identify or be destroyed," he said.

"Cairo, this is Commander Six. Authentication code, Delta delta zero nine sierra," Six replied with practiced precision. "We have the package on board,"

A pregnant pause echoed in the bridge as Cairo checked the code. "Confirmed," the man said. "Welcome back Dire-wolf," he paused again as he looked to another screen. "It seems that President Parisa wants to meet the package ASAP. She has sent a car to Kenosha spaceport,"

"Understood, we are beginning decent," Six said as the Dire-wolf moved forwards towards Mars.

As they approached Six looked down at her tablet and checked her messages. Communications tech was sill light years behind from using tanslight systems. There were two examples of technology that could do it, but those where on Reach and Earth. Both of which were gone, in more ways than one.

John looked towards the Spartan commander as her brow furrowed. There was a spark in her eye, one of anger but something else as well. He couldn't put his finger on it, but ignored it and made his way to one of the airlocks. Kelly was close behind him and the two walked to a port side airlock with some of the other Spartans. Most of them had their helmets off and duffle bags in hand. A few gave sideways looks to John but continued with their conversations.

It wasn't out of suspicion either. John knew he had a sort of celebrity status, and he had seen how people would give those people got looks from the crowd. This was the same. He ignored it as the ship landed and the airlock cycled.

"All right lads, home time," someone yelled which was followed by a few yells of excitement.

One by one the Spartans then filed out and onto the docks. John and Kelly soon made their own way onto the docks with the latter watching as men and women ran up to Spartans, embracing them. Some of them even had children with them. The Chief looked to Kelly and was reminded of what happened of the past 15 years of him being on ice.

Something inside him moved, but he didn't know what it was. Kelly however looked at John with a smirk amused by how he was stunned by this. As her 'brother' watched the other Spartans connecting with family, Six walked out.

"Stop staring, it makes you looks weird," she smiled as she passed him. "Hey," she yelled as a teen ran up to her and jumped on her.

"Hey mom," she said hugging the big Spartan.

"Hey little light," Six said before the two broke the hug. "Now what did you sister do?"

"Errrrrr," the teen looked away. "She's not… well…" she tried to find the right word.

But Six looked at her with her mother/ commander look. It pierced though the teen though who shrank from her mother's gaze.

"Well?" Six asked not taking her gaze off her daughter.

"…. Sh… she got into a fight with Drill Sargent Kiia," she then blustered out.

Six sighed. "Damn it, ok come on," she said as she and her daughter walked off.

"What was that about?" John asked.

"Six's eldest has a bit of a… independence streak," Kelly answered trying to find the right words. "She kinda reminds me of you,"

John looked to her. "In what way?"

Before Kelly could answer two men dressed black uniforms walked up. They wore something that appeared to be a combination of a suit and ODST armour. The way they carried themselves also gave the Chief that these guys were well trained, but not Spartans.

"Master Chief?" one of them asked to which John nodded. "We're President Parisa's guard. She has requested your presence,"

John looked to Kelly then the guards. "I… errr…" he muttered wasn't sure what to say.

"It's ok John," Kelly smiled. "Go with them, The President is quite eager to meet you," she then pulled out her tablet and sent something to John's HUD. "This is my address, when your done you can bunk with me until you get a home,"

"Thanks," John muttered.

"Not a problem," Kelly smiled as she patted his gauntlet. "See you around," she then walked off leaving John with the guards.

"Let's go," John said and the guards nodded leading him over to a blue and white Pelican.

OOOOO

As the Pelican flew towards the Presidential palace, John couldn't help but take in the defences. Whoever this Parisa was, she had a small army as at her disposal. The palace itself also reminded him of large military bunkers instead of a place of government. As the pelican moved towards the landing pad, John spied several black clad guards waiting on the pad. Soon the pelican landed and the three exited the pelican.

The guards lead the chief to one of the entrances into the metal slabbed building. Inside was completely different however, furnished walls, paintings ever few feet and everything. It was like he took a step from a military base into a high-class hotel. It was a surprise, but not much of one. He'd seen several bases like this before, but given the outside he expected more of a military aspect to the inside.

The guards lead the Chief to Parisa's main office and imputed a code. The door opened, but neither walked in.

"Please go in Chief, the President wanted to see you," one of them said.

John nodded and walked into the Parisa's office to see the Spartan talking to a general.

"I don't care what it takes," Parisa nearly yelled. "We what's in those data files,"

The man on the screen in front of her sighed as he rubbed his bald head. "Fine, but we're going to need an increase in manpower and money. We're in a radioactive hellhole after all,"

"You'll get it, just get it done," she said before the link cut and she cracked her neck. "Politics. I'm getting tiered of them," she said before she turned to see John standing before her. "Ah, 117, good to finally meet you," she said walking up to him.

As she walked up to him, John gave her a good look up and down. She had blue-black hair piercing blue eyes, while she stood taller than a normal human, she was still shorter than John. Her body was clad in a Spartan bodysuit that was shaped oddly. It almost acted as suit that someone in the diplomatic corps would wear, but made it clear that she was a Spartan. As she looked at him, her eyes felt like they burrowed into his mind. But something at the back of his mind gnawed at him.

"Take your helmet off," she then ordered.

John blinked. "Ma'am?"

"Take your helmet off," she repeated, not looking impressed.

John reached up and deactivated the mag-clamps. He then lifted the helmet up off his head showing the President his face, but her expression softened. A tear then fell from her eye, she reached up and removed it.

"Ya know, you look so much like your father," she said.

That hit John like a bag of rocks. "My father?" he stuttered for the first time. "What do you know of him?"

"It's a shame you don't remember me," she said. "I'm Parisa Neova, you saved me Lake Gusev when we were six. Then you promised to marry me,"

With that the memory came flooding back to John making him drop is helmet and back up. "You're that Parisa?" he asked as tears of his own fell.

The Spartan in front of him smiled warmly and nodded. "The very same John. It's good to see that you never died,"

"I…" John lost the words in his mouth. "I… don't know…"

Parisa said nothing instead she walked up to him and embraced him. "It's so good to see you," her tears began to fall more freely now. "I though you were dead, we all did. Your alive and that's all I ever wanted," she cried. "All I ever wanted was for you to be back,"

John was unsure, but embraced Parisa all the same letting his own tears fall. This new age was just beginning for him.


	4. Chapter 4

**UNSC Destroyer Naginata January 5 th 2553**

The world began to refocus as Parisa’s vision registered where she was. She moaned as a throbbing in her head awoke her even more.

“Owwwww,” she groaned as she sat up.

The white walls and the red cross on the wall made it clear where she was. “Medbay, right,” she sighed as she lay back down.

“Well well well,” someone said making her look up. “Rise and shing sleeping beauty,” a shaven headed man added as he walked in.

“Fuck off Adams,” Parisa smiled. “Or this sleeping beauty will shove that rifle up your ass,”

“Och,” a woman added as she walked around the door. “That’s harsh,” she said as she tried to fix her hair back up into a bun. “Even for you L.T,”

“I have a headache that will shatter a planet,” the L.T. said as she rubbed the side of her head. “I don’t even remember what happened to me. Guess I got lucky Rwby,”

“A Jackal took a pot shot at you,” Adams said. “Hit the side of your helmet and you fell a good few feet. Knocked you out cold,”

“How long was I out?” the officer asked.

“About 3 months,” Rwby said. “You missed the end of the war, and the beginning of a new one,”

That made her jump. “You mean the Covenant war is over?” she asked. “I assume we won?!”

“Yep,” Adams nodded, but his expression darkened. “But now we’re in the middle of a civil war,” he spat to the side. “Someone leaked ever single ONI file they could get their hands on. All their skeletons were pulled out for the whole of human existence to see. That made several words defect with their UNSC compliment,” he spat again. “Goddam traitors,”

“Out of the way!” a woman in a white doctor’s coat said as she charged in. “Joe said you were awake, glad to see it,”

Parisa blinked at the doctor who took several deep breaths. “Kat, what…” she tried to say but Katrina thrusted a tablet in front of her.

“Look, read this before Lieutenant Obi leave the ship,” the doctor said.

Parisa’s brow furrowed as she took and read what it said. “John 117…” she muttered before looking back up. “What about him?”

“Read further down,” Kat insisted.

The L.T. said nothing as she scrolled down the file. After a moment she stopped and her eyes went wide. Adams and Rwby watched as Parisa’s grip tightened on the tablet tightened to the point where the plastic began to distort. Her team looked to her to see her expression being a mix. The problem was that they couldn’t tell what she was feeling.

“Listen,” Kat said not expecting to get her friend’s attention. “ONI is looking for people to take part in Spartan IV. Think about it, it’s the best way to find him,”

Parisa’s eyes then narrowed and she pulled herself out of bed. “Where is Obi?” she asked, venom dripping from each word.

“Bridge, talking to the Captain,” Kat replied.

With that, Parisa charged out of the medical bay with the two ODST’s looking from where Parisa left. “What was that about?” Adams asked.

“Remember how Parisa talks about her old friend John?” Kat asked and the two nodded. “Turns out, he’s not as dead as we’ve been told,”

“Wha….” Rwby began to ask but her eyes widened, “Oh… shit…”

But Adams just looked between the two still not getting it.

OOOOO

Lieutenant Obi stood on the bridge of the Defiant as Captain Zubof commanded his destroyer for deployment. The Asian man stroked his blond hair before setting his officer’s hat back on his head. His tanned skin shined in the light of the screens, which he scanned. But nothing of note came from them, he would ask the crew, but the leek prevented that.

Ever since the leek, ONI had been turned away on every note. Now they were just being tolerated, their power just about gone. There was little he could do without being threatened with a pistol in his face. He turned only to stagger back as a fist met his face. Obi fell back on his rear, he looked up only to stare down the barrel of a pistol.

“Lieutenant Neova, what is the meaning of this?” Zubof asked as he looked over from his console.

Obi looked up to see the ODST officer looking at him with a fire in her eyes that he rarely seen before. That fire was only seen when someone had an emotional fury of a demon. He took a quick glace round only to see people looking at them and no one getting up to help. Gulping, he turned back to the L.T. and tried to smile.

“Wh…” he tried to say but that earned him a kick to the leg. “Ahhh,”

“I want in to the Spartan IV,” she said.

Obi looked to her as did several others. “I don’t know if you’re on the list,” Obi defended.

“Then put me on it!” she demanded as the Captain walked up.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked again, he got an answer as Parisa handed him a tablet which he read. “117… what…” he tried to ask until he read the name of the planet the Chief was born on. “Eridanus II…” he muttered and looked up to the officer. “Is this the same John you talked about?”

“Yes, I recognise that face anywhere. ONI kidnapped him when he was six and turned him into a Spartan,” she kicked Obi again. “You took my best friend from me, made me think he was dead! I want to become a Spartan even if I die!”

Obi looked into her eyes again, those fierce eyes. “Okey!” he said fearing for his life. “Okey, I’ll get you on the list. Not like we have a choice,” he muttered the last part to himself.

Parisa backed down and turned away. “I’ll get my stuff ready,” she said before walking off.

Obi got up only to be sent back down to the ground with a punch to the gut. “What was that for?” he asked looking up at the Captain.

“Because I felt like it and I’m losing a fine officer. Now get the hell off my bridge,” he said before giving the officer a final kick.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” Obi moaned as he stood and walked off.

OOOOO **Present day, Mars, Presidential Palace.**

After being held by the man she had thought dead for years, Parisa reluctantly pulled herself away from his grasp. John didn’t do anything to stop her, he didn’t have much experience expressing his emotions. Unlike Kelly. The President backed up a step and looked up to the Chief.

“I fully intend to hold you to your promise,” she smiled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “We need to get to know each other all over again. It’s been almost 50 years since we even talked. You’ve changed so much that I hardly even know you,” that smile didn’t leave her face. “So, there’s no need to rush things, let’s take it slow,” her expression then hardened. “But that’s not the only reason I wanted you back,”

As she spoke, she walked up to the holo-table and activated it. “I assume that Six, Kelly and Roland talked about the Empire and their Hive?”

John nodded. “Yes, they said that they had a number of AI linked together. It countered rampancy,”

“Correct on both counts,” Parisa said as she brought up a holo of AI code and structure. “We discovered this little problem about three years ago when we intercepted this,” she then played a sound file.

John focused as he listened to the file. He could make out something in it, but it was mostly just static and voices talking over one another. The file only lasted for ten seconds before it ended. Once it did the chief shook his head.

“I did hear voices, but it was mostly static,” he said. “Nothing useful,”

“Our thoughts exactly,” Parisa nodded. “But listen to what happens when we filter it,”

She then pressed for another sound file to play; this time John could hear voices. “Troop movements and instructions,” he said but his eyes widened as he focused on one particular voice “Cortana,”

“Yeah,” Parisa nodded. “After this, we redoubled our efforts to find you,”

“To go after her,” John guessed.

“That right. You are the only one who had any kind of major relations with her,” the president said as she closed the files down.

“What about Halsey?” the chief asked.

“Dead,” Parisa said flatly. “As soon as people knew what happened during the Spartan program, she was found and lynched. Her death was…” she shook involuntary. “It wasn’t pretty. She was stung up by her feet and slaughtered like an animal before her body was burned. No one stopped her or even cared. She was the one who committed the sin of kidnapping and turning children into Spartans. To their eyes she was the devil, nothing would have stopped them from killing her,”

“So, there’s only me left who can help Cortana,” John muttered.

“Yes and no,” the president said as she activated the holo-table again showing the Empire’s territory. “For a start we have no idea where she is. She could be on New Reach, Neos Atlantis… we just don’t know. I have Fred and Linda looking for the source of that transmission, but that would just complicate matters as we wouldn’t know where to begin looking. ONI left a lot of places when they vanished, she could be there,”

The chief nodded understanding the logic and sighed. “So, there’s little we can do for now,”

“Yeah, as much as I hate waiting, we have to,” she rubbed the back of her neck in frustration as John failed to contain a smile.

“I’m the same way,” he said. “I hate waiting,” that made her smile.

“Speaking of which,” she said as she walked over to a small black box. “I know you only recently met us but things are bad for us. As such I have to ask,” she dropped her smile and an aura of authority emanated from her. “Master Chief Petty Officer John 117, I offer you to join the Mars Federation. Do you accept?”

John stood straighter and saluted. “I accept,” Parisa followed the salute before picking up the box and opening it.

Inside was a stylised eagle of the Spartan program set on a red planet. Next to that sat three patches. Each one had an eagle’s head sitting on top three bars.

“I hereby promote you from Master Chief Petty Officer, to Lieutenant Commander,” she then handed him the box. “Congratulations, I’ve looked over your files so many times and filed to understand how you didn’t get promoted. Now, you are a Commander,” she smiled.

“What are my duties?” he asked.

“You’ll be commanding a Task Force under the command of General Banks,” she said before handing him a tablet. “This is a list of the Task force you’ll be commanding with recommendations for your command team. The force is made up of Marines, ODST and Spartans. The force was made for special missions, something I felt you are best suited for,”

“Thank you, ma’am,” John said as he placed the tablet under his arm.

“Don’t be so formal with me,” Parisa shrugged. “I’m rarely formal in front on my of military commanders,” as she said that one of her guards opened the doors.

“Ma’am, the company CEO’s are here,” he said making Parisa sigh.

“Fuck,” she muttered. “Sorry, looks like I’m going to have to cut this short,”

“It’s fine ma’am. Kelly offered me to lunch and a bunk for the night. Until I get a place of my own,” John shrugged.

“Good to hear,” she said before looking to her guard. “Get a car ready, Commander John needs to go Spartan hights,”

“Yes ma’am,” the guard said before moving off.

Parisa took this opportunity to move up to John and peck him on the cheek. “I’ll call you at some point,” she smiled. “We can have lunch,”

“I’d like that,” John said awkwardly before leaving unsure how to process what he just went though.

OOOOO

A young officer lead Six down one of the corridors of the Ares academy. The main training facility for aspiring Spartans and ODST troopers. Due to the requirements for being a Spartan, the classes of Spartans were less than that of the ODST but had a higher academic and military rate. This didn’t sit well with the ODST recruits, so there was some friction between the two. Despite this, the trainers did their best to get the two groups to work together with varying levels of success.

It didn’t work 100% during training, but when the troopers got onto the field it was a different story. For the most part, ODST worked with the Spartans on the field with only a few still holding any major grudges. Soon the officer opened a door to one of the rooms. Inside was two chairs, one of them occupied with a young short haired woman and a table. Six walked in and close the door.

“What am I going to do with you?” Six asked as she took a seat. “This is the third time Aniko, the third. I cannot protect you for a fourth,”

“They said Spartans caused this war!” Aniko defended.

“Weather we started this war or not is neither here or there,” Six shot back. “You cannot just slug someone who insulted you,”

“He insulted you, mom,” the girl defended.

“I have been insulted, denied and more, it’s not new to me. But you cannot jeopardise your candidacy if you keep starting fights,” Six said making Aniko shrink. “You want to be a Spartan; your marks are top of your class. But that means nothing if you fight for nothing more than words. You need to keep those emotions under control otherwise you will be rejected,”

Aniko sighed and looked away.

“Look,” Six muttered as she leaned forward on the table. “You have been working so hard to get the Spartan stamp. I’m proud of you for doing so, but I feel that you have been pushing yourself too hard. You need a break,”

Aniko looked to her mother wide eyed, she was about to say something but looked down. “What will happen if I do?” she asked.

“Your academics will be fine,” Six replied softly. “You’ll just be given a week or two to relax,”

Aniko sighed as she leaned back in her chair. “And if I don’t take it willingly, you’ll force me,” she said and Six nodded. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll take the two weeks,”

Six stood and walked around to her daughter. “I’m only doing this to try and help you,” she said before embracing her daughter who gave her a shallow hug. “I’ll get the paper work sorted and we’ll go to the beach. You, me and Sophia. Just the three of us like old times,”

In spite of herself Aniko smiled. “Thanks mom,”

OOOOO

**September 3rd 2552 Reach.**

Six and two snipers looked though their sniper scopes spying at Iron Base. The base wasn’t filled with Covenant soldiers, but there was still quite a few.

“I’m counting, 30 maybe 40,” Six said. “Maybe more inside,”

“I’m mostly seeing grunts and jackals,” the marine sniper said next to her. “The odd elite, not seeing any heavier units,”

“They are probably on patrol,” the final sniper said, a civilian, who looked though an old-fashioned wooden sniper rifle. “But if that’s the case, if we start shooting…”

“We’ll get noticed,” the marine muttered. “And if there are any forces nearby…”

“We’ll get spotted,” Six nodded with agreement as she pulled herself away from the scope and looked to the others. “Stay here, alert me if anything changes,”

The two nodded and Six slid down the ledge she was on. As she landed one of the few ODST’s in the group helped her up. She gave him a nod and walked over to where Rose and Lee’s second, Captain Knight an ODST. The two looked up to Six as she approached and squatted down.

“What does it look like?” Knight asked.

“Not bad, but I’m more concerned about the ones we cannot see,” Six said as she drew a diagram of the base in front of the others.

People gathered round to see what the plan was going to be. “We’ve detected at least 40 troops around the base, but that number is most likely wrong,”

“Troops inside and on patrol,” a sergeant said out loud. “Sorry,”

He got a look from the Captain, but little else. “What he said, not to mention we cannot let them alert any other bases in the area,” he sighed. “So, we need to do this quick and as quiet as possible. Shame we don’t have suppressors for our big guns,”

“Agreed,” Six nodded. “But there is a way to do this, even if we have to go loud,” she pointed to an alien antenna in the middle of the compound. “This is a Covenant mobile relay. It’s a purple box with a large arial coming out of it. It can be mistaken for a general use, but that arial on it makes it stand out. If we secure that, and make sure it’s not damaged we can take our time getting all the supplies we need,”

Knight nodded and looked to Rose. “You fine with this plan?” he asked.

“I’m a civilian,” Rose smiled. “I’m leaving the military stuff to you and Six,”

“If you have anything to add, don’t be afraid to speak your mind,” Six said. “Sometimes a fresh mind is needed,” Rose nodded at that and continued to watch and listen. “Either way, this is the plan I have,” she then made lines into and out of the compound. “We split the group up into two. One group made up of soldiers while the other is civilians and a few soldiers. Group one will move silently into the base from the south and take out the Covenant as silently as possible,”

“No offence to our marines,” Knight said that got him some looks. “But we ODST’s know how to be stealthy. We’ll take point,”

Six nodded. “Agreed, the rest of us will hang back until we hear gunshots,” she then looked at the drawing. “Once the courtyard is clear, we then need to clear out the base. I’ll do that with a some of your ODST’s,” Knight nodded.

“The once we’re clear on Covenant, the civilians move in and get as many supplies we can onto trucks,” Knight added.

“It will help if all of us help with that,” Rose said. “Not just the civilians,”

“It would also speed things up,” Knight agreed. “But we need a protection detail,” he stroked the goatee on his chin thinking. “If we set up people here, here, here and here, we’ll be able to see the enemy coming,” he pointed to four vantage points that the Covenant had failed to take advantage of. “Four troopers per point, that should keep us covered,”

Six nodded. “I agree, we also have sniper support, so that should help,”

Rose and Knight nodded. “Then let’s get to work,” the latter said.

OOOOO

Evocatus Bako 'Lufam growled as he walked around the base looking at the primitive human technology. While he found it disgusting, he was one of the few of his kind who wanted to know more about the humans. ‘To fight one’s enemy, one must learn about their enemy’, a philosophy he and his family followed. But given how weak the humans were, it didn’t mean much now.

However, he still had an interest in the humans. What made them fight? What did they know? Why didn’t the Prophets let them join? That latter question was one that some of his fellow Sangheili shared. He walked over to a human desk and picked up an object from it. It was an image of a human male, human female and smaller ones. His eyes narrowed, was this what humans considered family? He placed it back down and looked at the white sheets on the table. Human script was the most confusing to him, over the years he had found hundreds of types of script that the humans used. It seemed that they did have a primary one that they used, but event that was inconsistent.

Some of the words used were ordered differently, different icons used to mean the same thing. Bako was always fascinated with how strange humans were, how they managed to reach the stars was beyond him. But he couldn’t deny their creativity and resolve. This world, Reach they called it, he had rarely seen humans fight with such fury and zeal. They showed what proud warriors they were. If only the Prophets could see what these humans could add to the Covenant.

Smash…

Bako turned, his weapon up looking around the room. A small object filled with a brown liquid had fallen onto the floor. He walked over to it and squatted down; he had seen stuff like this before. Did the humans drink it? As he squatted something moved out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t move. He could see the pinkish tinge of a human there. They were trying to hide from him. And why wouldn’t they, he had killed so many that fear was their only response.

Standing he looked around to see if there was a place where he could look at them without making obvious, he was looking. Bako moved over to a set of shelves and began to inspect the items. His back was to where the humans were, so it looked like he took an interest in something else. But one of the items on the shelf was a reflective item. As he looked, he saw movement from the reflective item, this time the human moved out to another hiding spot.

He growled slightly. A small human, younglings. As the human hide somewhere, else Boko turned to look around the room. He didn’t kill children; he wouldn’t kill children. Warriors yes, they were dedicated to fight others to protect their race. He was here to fight warriors, not kill younglings. He turned and walked into a corridor as human weapons fire echoed in his ears. Several Sangheili passed him but he stopped one.

“Give me your sword,” he said.

“But sir,” the minor said but Boko just faced him.

Reluctantly the minor pulled out his sword and handed it to Boko. The latter then went back into the room and stood in the middle of the room. He did look to where the youngling was just to see that they were still there. The gunfire and yells got closer until the door he was in opened. A group of humans then fired at him which he blocked by holding his sword in front of him.

The fire stopped and he lowered his sword as a demon stepped forward. Boko smiled and threw the other sword onto the ground. The demon picked it up and activated it before dismissing the other humans. As soon as the last human left the demon charged, moving fast. But Boko was fast as well as he blocked the demon’s attack. The demon then kicked itself off pushing itself back. The two circled each other not taking their eyes off the opponent.

Boko’s mandibles twitched; he hadn’t faced a demon before. This was going to be a good fight. The demon moved in again this time with a straight trust which he parried with ease. But the demon spun and back handed him making him stagger backwards, he responded by kicking the demon in the gut. Boko then swung his sword managing to slash at the demon’s plate.

He managed to scar it, but as he turned the demon pulled off its helmet. As she cast aside her helmet Boko noticed the damage he did to her helmet. The demon then moved in again only to be blocked, this time she had a trick up her sleeve. Boko felt a pain from his side and looked down to see a human blade stuck there. His mandibles twitched as he pushed the demon off who came back at him with a thrust. Boko cried out as the plasma blades pierced his torso. He knew he was going to die as hr dropped his sword and fell to his knees. The demon pulled out her pistol and aimed at his head.

She was about to fire but Boko held up his hand. He knew that the human couldn’t understand him, but he was going to give it a try.

“You have done well,” he said before pointing to a slightly closed off alcove. “I am no murder of, take care of them,” with that he slumped and died.

OOOOO

Six just stared at the elite she had just faced before looking over to the alcove. She walked over to it and pulled a file cabinet away before she was staring a young girl in the face. Her mouth dropped slightly as the kid looked up at her. She had dark brown hair and fair skin that was covered in muck. She also carried a bundle with her with the face of a baby visible. Six looked over to the elite then back at the child and squatted down.

“Hey, I’m not here to harm you,” Six said as softly as she could.

“You… Sparten?” the kid asked.

Six nodded. “Yes, I’m a Spartan. Is that your sibling?”

The girl shook her head. “N…no mom found her, told me to take care of her,” the girl stood and climbed off the alcove. “I want to go home,”

Six nodded. “C… can I pick you up?” she asked and the girl smiled and held out her hand allowing Six to pick the kid. “What’s your name?”

“Aniko,” she responded.

“Well Aniko, I think you are very brave trying to hide from the monster there,” Six said trying to raise the girl’s spirits.

“Monster saw us,” Aniko then said.

Six looked and walked up to the elite. “He saw you, but didn’t come to you?”

Aniko shook her head. “No, he saw but didn’t approach,” the girl replied.

Six squatted down and looked at the elite finding something hanging from its breastplate. She had seen these before, elites had pulled them off dead. Reaching out she did the same and pocked it. With that she and the two walked out of the compound. As they walked into the burned skies of Reach Six called out.

“Medic!” she yelled and one of the marines came running.

“Where did you find these two?” he asked looking at the small child and baby.

“Inside, an elite ignored them,” Six answered making the marine stare at her.

“Seriously?” he asked in astonishment. “Ok wired, but let’s get these two looked at,” he brough Six over to one of the functional warthogs.

Six set the two of them down. “Aniko, I’m going to be helping out getting food onto the trucks. I want you to say here with the doctor and…. And keep your sister safe,”

“Yes miss,” she said nervously.

“You are very brave,” the medic said. “Can I look at your sister?”

As he said that Six moved off to help load supplies onto trucks and warthogs.


	5. Chapter 5

Fred slowly moved along a snowy ridge to get a better view of the Empire Base. The cloak he wore managed to cover the majority of his blue armour and allowed him to blend into the scenery. Linda was around somewhere, being the ghost, she was. But the two had cut communications for now. Being this close to a relay outpost, they didn’t want to tip anyone of to their presence. They were too close now, too close to fail.

As Fred moved a pelican came down and landed on one of the pads near the outpost. While the snow covered his vision, Fred used his helmet’s visor to get a closer look. He couldn’t use his enhanced sound detectors this far out, and the snow only hampered that problem. He wated as a long-coated officer walked off the pelican and onto the snow as another officer walked out. Other than the long-coated officer and his guard, the others wore winter camo with red and black armour. All five of them wore a mask over their face, keeping them alive.

The planet’s atmosphere wasn’t entirely safe for human habitation. There was something in the air that turned a human’s lungs into little more than liquid sacs. Scientists still haven’t figured it out yet, but that wasn’t the problem the problem was the officer and what he was here for. Seeing any officer of the Empire in the field meant something went horribly wrong for them. Fred gritted his teeth.

“Of all the times,” he muttered as he deactivated his visor and began to move again.

But he placed a foot on a loose chuck of ice and slipped. The Spartan slid down and landed face first into snow.

Linda said nothing as she aimed her sniper rifle at the officer who looked in the direction here Fred fell. Her finger on the trigger ready to blow the man’s head off. But she didn’t need to do anything as one of the local marines said something and calmed the officer down. Inwardly she sighed with thanks and watched as the five walked inside the outpost. She then flashed green on Fred HUD. Her ‘brother’ flashed back and began to slowly move up to the outpost.

Linda moved her rifle to see if she could see any guards outside the outpost. This place used to be an ONI comms facility before it was taken over by the Empire. Aside from communications, Mars wasn’t sure what it was being used for. So, Fred and Linda were sent to investigate. Fred moved in closer and closer until he was close enough to break out into a run without being spotted. Making it to the outpost he pressed himself against the wall and edged towards the door.

He flashed Linda green before moving up to the door and pulled off the key code panel. He smiled and began to selectively pull wires out and splice them together. The door opened and he put the panel back on. Officer or not, no one in the outpost was going to make it out alive. He claimed in and locked the door behind him. The door only led to a lift which he got onto, however instead of taking it down, he opened up the floor panel and climbed into the shaft. He swung over to a maintance ladder and slid down the shaft.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the bottom. Once he landed, he moved over to the door and opened it thankfully no one was watching the door allowing him to move though. He pulled out one of his knives and moved down the corridor. The door on the other end opened as two marines walked out. They didn’t have a chance to register Fred’s presence as the Spartan moved. 

A knife landed in the eye of one of the marines and before the other could react Fred was already on top of him. The Spartan grabbed the marines head and snapped his neck. Fed gently lowered the marine onto the ground before recovering his knife. Picking the two marines up, he moved them to an out of the way and hide them before moving on. Unaware that hidden camera’s saw his every move. Crouching low, he moved slowly into the main corridors and kept his eyes open for anything that might become useful.

But there were only three doors. One for quarters, one for operations and the final one for the generator. While plunging the outpost into darkness was an interesting prospect, it could shut the entire base down but that would mean losing the intel. Not an option. It would also be strange if the Empire stopped receiving messages from here. So that’s the quarters out, it may hamper Empire messages taking out this place which would make his mission even harder.

Fred entered the room with pistol in hand. Operations turned out to be a large open room with several cryo tubes in the middle of the room. Computers and terminals were stacked along the walls with wires attached to the ceiling and down to the cyro tubes. Fred walked up to one of the pods and looked inside. To his horror a face stared back at him, a human face.

A nude man lay in the tube surrounded by some kind of liquid. His mouth was covered by a mask, but given his jaw movements he was clearly saying something. Wires connected him to the pod, with the majority of the coming from his head. Fred moved around looking from one pod to the other seeing the same thing. In all he found six people, two male two female.

“What the fuck is going on here?” he muttered.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” a deep voice said making Fred to see the officer standing before him.

The man had dark skin and piercing brown eyes. His officer cap sat snugly on his bald head while his coat hid something under it. But there was no mistaking that face.

“Locke,” Fred muttered making the man smile.

“Hello Fred,” Locke muttered as he removed his hat. “You’re doing well,”

“If I’d known you were here, I’d would have brought the entire team,” blue three countered as he looked for an exit.

“Too bad,” the officer said as he removed his coat showing his spartan armour. “You won’t be leaving alive,”

Locke then charged at Fred who blocked the attack. “Going one-on-one with me?” Fred asked with a smile. “Did you forget that scar I gave you?”

“I’m going to pay you back,” Locke said as he kicked Fred in the side and threw him to the side. “Just like your ‘sister’,”

Fred said nothing as he pounced on Locke.

Outside Linda kept her eyes open for anything that may come towards the bunker. But something still felt wrong, she trusted Fred, but he hadn’t contacted her though a secure line yet. That shouldn’t have taken him long to do, so what was…

The sound of a shot-snap sounded in her ears making her move for cover. She slid further into the crevasse she was hiding in and moved along it. Soon she found a hole that she used to move along to get out. Dropping into a ditch she scanned the area, who took that shot? Her eyes scanned the landscape until another shot landed next to her making her take cover again. Inwardly she groaned, she knew who it was. But she wasn’t going to let him win. Checking her rounds, she moved along the ditch as low as she can knowing that the sniper had got a bead on her. In fact, she counted on it.

She approached some steam vents and managed to find some cover. Even if he was a good sniper, even couldn’t target her though steam. But neither could she, but that was the point. She had a general idea of where he was, so if she managed to scare him, flush him out, then she could take him down.

Fred ducked as a fist came for him, he responded by punching Locke in the leg. That made him go down, but it also allowed him to get a grip on Fred’s armour. Locke swung at Fred, but missed as the older Spartan kneed the young in the jaw sending him back. Getting up Fred ran to the door activating his team-comm.

“Linda, Osiris is here,” he said before he was tackled to the ground by Locke.

Fred trucked and slammed his helmet against Lock’s skull. He was sure he didn’t crack it, but that wasn’t his worry at the moment, he needed to escape. He stabbed Locke ins the side before pulling himself away he then kicked Locke in the face before making a run for the lift. Jumping to the ladder, he climbed up and slid though the lift hatch. All that was left was the door.

Linda fired three rounds; she didn’t mind where they landed. But if she could…

 _“Linda, Osiris is here,”_ Fred’s voice said over team-comm.

Saying nothing Linda moved out of her position, she would have to end Jun’s life another time.

The door opened and Fred exited the compound before running in the direction of the Prowler. Parisa wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

OOOOO

John stood before Kelly’s apartment and sighed. This whole new life was already starting to get to him. First it was the fall of the UNSC, then Parisa being alive, now being a commander of a combat group. Now here before his sister’s apartment, he hoped that some familiarity would come back. But a part of him doubted that. He knocked on the door. A moment later and a girl opened the door and looked up.

“Mom,” she called out. “A Spartan’s here,”

“John?” Kelly asked before appearing behind her daughter. “Finally, Parisa loves to hog people,” she smiled and invited her ‘brother’ in. “Come on in,”

John looked around the apartment. It was large and well furnished with a good look at the city. Toys were scattered around the window next to a tv. The window overlooked the northern part of the city. A set of stairs that lead up to the upper level sat next to the window with a kitchen area opposite.

“Ahh balls,” Kelly muttered as she pulled a pot off the cooker and onto a wooden tray. “Balls,” she continued to say as she picked up the lid. “It’s a little burned,”

“Mom,” the girl said. “You said you could cook,”

“I’ve been practicing,” Kelly defended as she pulled out some bowls. “Honey! Foods, up and our guest is here!”

“Coming,” a male voice said as the small girl moved up to the table and sat on a chair.

John walked up and took a set as Kelly came over with the pot in her hands and her husband came down. As he walked down the steps, John got a good look at him. He wasn’t a Spartan, but he did look fit. He wore a grey/ black suit and carried a baby in his arms.

“Ahh you must be the Master Chief,” he said as he spied John. “I’m Alex,” he slid the child into a high seat before offering his hand to John. “Please to meet you at last,”

John reached over and shook the man’s hand. “I… thank you,” he said making Alex snigger.

“Please, the pleasure is all mine,” he said as he sat down. “Kelly, Fred and Linda have told me all about you and your missions. But meeting the legend makes a change,” as he talked Kelly placed bowls of rice and curry in front of them.

“Arcadian-style Tikka curry,” she smiled. “A little burned, but it might add to the taste,”

“That cooking class helping?” Alex asked as he nervously tapped the food with his spoon.

The little girl on the other hand just tucked into her food. “Mommy, it’s too burned,” she cried. “And I hate the vegetables,”

“You better eat them Athena,” Kelly said looking to her daughter. “Or no tv tonight,”

“Awww mommy…” Athena moaned.

“She’s right you know,” John said. “Eating vegetables makes you big and strong,” he said as he ate his own.

He didn’t know where that came from, but it came from somewhere. Maybe before he became a Spartan.

Alex just sniggered, but said nothing. He knew that few Spartan II’s remembered their past before the project. So, he didn’t bring it up.

“So, Alex, how did you are Kelly meet?” John asked as he took another bite.

‘Athena is right, it’s a little too burned,’ he thought.

Alex fell silent as he thought. “About 8 years ago,” he said as he took a bite. “Kelly came back from deployment and I found her at a local café,” he shrugged. “I had never seen a Spartan outside of the tv so I sat in front of her and began to talk,”

“It was awkward as hell,” Kelly added with a blush.

“But worth it,” Alex winked to his wife as he continued the story. “After that we met up a few more times before we started to properly date,” his tone then turned to a more sobering one. “As we had our talks, one thing crept into mind, who was Kelly?”

John blinked. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“As a person, who was Kelly?” Alex clarified. “The Spartan II’s didn’t have much of a personality, much identity when ONI took you. All you were, were soldiers, people who lived and breathed warfare. So, under all that, who was Kelly the person, not Kelly the soldier,”

“It took us ages for us to figure that one out,” Kelly smiled. “I am Kelly the soldier, but I’m, also Kelly the mother,”

John nodded and continued to eat. “Does six have a husband?”

“You mean because of her two kids?” Kelly asked and John nodded. “No, she adopted them,”

The Chief blinked at that. “She adopted them?” he asked with some surprised.

“Yeah,” Alex nodded. “Before she became commander of the Wolf Pack, she was a nomad with a group of refugees from Reach,”

“Six the Wolf!” Athena smiled. “She’s one of my favourite characters!”

“She means cartoon characters,” Kelly clarified. “She had been gone for so long, that she had plenty of stories to tell. Which got turned into a kid’s TV show,”

“Six did not like that,” Alex smiled as he fed the baby next to him.

“What happened?” John asked.

OOOOO **September 3rd 2552 Reach.**

Six knocked on a door which was followed by a ‘come in’, and she entered. Captain Edward Buck sat behind his desk while he talked to his wife.

“Veronica I know but…” he said but got cut off and gave a slight wave to Six.

“No but’s about it Buck,” Veronica said over the comm as Six walked up to a seat in front of the desk. “You need to get me those files if you expect your cadets to graduate, you need to get them signed off on available posts. If not, then they are just wasted,”

“I know,” Buck sweated. “I’m doing what I can, but you know the red tape,”

“I’ll see if I can ease it for you,” Veronica said before she cut the link.

“I love it when your wife eats you out,” Six smiled earning herself a scornful look from Buck.

“I know you’re not here to gloat about my love life,” he said with a smile of his own.

“Yeah, I want to take Ainko for a 2-week vacation,” the Spartan said making Buck’s brow raise.

“I assume it has something to do with her recent… disagreement?” he asked with a sigh.

“Yes, I feel she’s been pushing too hard,” Six said as she took the seat. “She’s one of the best students here, working non-stop in all areas. Physical, academic, military…”

Buck nodded. “She’s had been putting 110% in at all times. Top of her class in multiple fields, but her temper tends to be her downside. I can see why you want to take her off for a while,”

“Yeah, I’m just not sure where she got the temper,” Six shook her head.

“Well, I think that might be you,” Buck shrugged earning himself a look from her.

“Me?” she questioned. “But I adopted her,”

“There’s always been the argument of nature versus nurture,” he said as he poured himself a drink. “It’s always been a bit of both, at least in my experience,” he took a drink. “Don’t forget, she was brought up for 7 years as a nomad with a Spartan for a mother. You really don’t think she picked up some bad traits from you?” he smiled.

Six said nothing but sighed. “True, I didn’t want her to join anything military. But…”

“But she took after you and is aiming to be a Spartan. Because she looked up to you,” Buck smiled. “I know the feeling. I’ll get her signed off, on the understand she gets extra,”

“I don’t think she’ll mind,” Six smiled. “If anything, she’ll relish the challenge,”

OOOOO

After getting what they needed from Iron base, group 2 set up a convoy to the space port. The convoy was made up of two road tractors, four spade picks ups and eight trucks. They also managed to get their hands on twelve warthogs. Four of them had chainguns, three had rockets, two had gauss cannons and two were transports. The trucks carried weapons, food, water, ammo and some crates of clothing. But the group prioritised the crates from 1 to 4 with 1 being the most important and decreasing in importance the higher the number.

The trucks were also modified with a speed boost fuel so that they could get to the spaceport faster. Granted they would be ruined, but at this point group 2 didn’t have much of a choice. The Covenant was moving in, and fast, as such they couldn’t split up or do anything except put the peddle to the metal. But in order to provide protection, the warthogs were placed between the trucks. Marines had also been armed with rocket launchers and placed on the side seats of the warthogs. A little extra protection couldn’t hurt. Thankfully, no one had tried to strafe them… yet.

Six sat in a troop warthog second from the front. She sat at the front with the baby, named Sophia, while Aniko slept in the back with a female marine. The Spartan didn’t know what do with the two of them, but leaving them wasn’t an option.

“How are they?” she asked.

The medic who checked them out, also drove the warthog the two were on.

“Sophia’s fine considering how young she is,” he said not taking his eyes off the road. “She may need some formula, easy to get on the ship. As for Aniko, she’s been though a lot. I’m not sure what kind of scars she’ll have, but all she needs now is a good meal,”

Six looked back at young girl as a thought crossed her mind. If she could survive this with few scars, could she be a Spartan in the future? That thought she banished from her mind, no. Very few could be Spartans and for some reason she didn’t want to think about that possibility. The idea that one of these girls would become a Spartan wasn’t appealing. Six had been though that hell, and wouldn’t want it on her worst enemy.

“Both of them have been though a lot,” the medic continued. “Once we’re on the ship, maybe we can find a good home for them,”

Six looked down at Sophia in her arms. Giving them to someone else to look after? The thought alone, she didn’t want to think about it. But would it be a good idea to give them to someone else? She didn’t have time to think about that as the sound of banshees met her ears. Aniko woke up and looked up as did the others in the convoy.

“Shit!” one of the gunners yelled and opened fire.

The gunfire woke Sophia up who began to cry.

“Sparten,” Aniko said making Six look to her.

“Hold onto you sister,” Six said and handed Sophia to the 5-year-old.

The Spartan then grabbed a Spartan laser and looked towards a squadron of seven banshees flying toward them. 12.7x99 slugs flew through the air creating bullet holes in the banshee’s front armour. While it did little it did force them to break up and try to take out the convoy. But the lead was taken out by Six who destroyed it with her Spartan laser. The other six drifted away from trying to pick out their targets with their plasma cannons.

The pilots were smart, however as they tried to keep their distance from the convoy. The gauss and rockets would outright destroy them with ease. One of the pilots decided to try his luck and tried to get in close only to be taken out of the air with three rockets. The fist detonated harmlessly close to the fighter, but it did force it to move to the side when it got hit by two rockets. It’s shell then crashed into another banshee making the two crash into the ground.

That pissed off the other four as they flew in and managed to take out two of the warthogs forcing the convoy to stop. One rocket and one troop were destroyed. But it did them little favours as the firepower of the others took the final four banshees’ out. But they lost 10 marines, and two warthogs. A fair price to pay of keeping their supplies. There was a problem however, did they send out a message to the others? They didn’t want to find out, or take the chance. So, after moving the warthog husks out of the way they just pushed on. A few did say a prayer, but even those were on the vehicles on rote to the spaceport.

After another two hours the convoy arrived at the gates, which opened up and lead them to main docking area. Several marines from group one lead them to the only spaceship in the whole station. A Paris-class frigate with the name ‘Dire-wolf’ on the side. As the vehicles stopped Six climbed out of her warthog and looked around.

Group one had made barricades around the entrance and along the walls. Four scorpion tanks were positioned around the main entrance to prevent the covenant from getting in. It also cleared space in the frigate to allow for more storage. As Six exited her warthog, Major Lee, Rose, Kai and Dan ran up to her with a man wearing a white uniform following close behind.

“Six, good to see your group made it,” Rose said before looking to her legs and seeing a 5-year-old hiding behind the Spartans legs holding a baby. “Who might this be?” she asked as she squatted down while smiling.

“This is Aniko and her Sister Sophia,” Six answered before getting down and looking at Aniko. “This is Rose, she’ll take care of you,”

“But.. I want to stay wif you,” Aniko said.

“I know, but what I’m going to do is dangerous. I’ll be back I promise,” she said leaning in and kissing the girl on the forehead. “Go on,”

Aniko was hesitant but walked over and took Roses hand and the three walked off.

“You really were motherly,” Lee commented.

“I know,” Six muttered before shaking her head. “But we need to get out of here, what the situation?”

“This is Captain Lynch,” Lee indicated to the man in the white uniform. “He and a few more survivors had the same idea as us,”

“Pleasure,” Lynch said as he offered his hand which Six took.

“Captain,” she said looking at him up and down. “Forgive me but you don’t look navy,”

Lynch just waved. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not military, and I don’t take it as an insult. I’m a cruise Captain, but most of the men I picked out were military. They’re on board now getting the ship ready for take-off now,”

“How many men do you have?” Six asked.

“20,” he said. “Not too many,”

Six just nodded. “Let’s hope so,” she said as the trucks moved into a line and began to unload their cargo.

“It should take about an hour for us to unload the cargo,” Lee said. “Until then we need to keep an eye out for the covies,”

“Agreed,” Lynch said. “I’ll get back to the bridge, make sure things are going well,”

“Keep in contact,” Six said.

“Will do,” the Captain nodded.

“I’ll take the wall,” Six said.

“Weapons are over there,” Lee pointed to a weapons crate making the Spartan smile.

“Nice,” she said as she walked over to it.

She grabbed a sniper rifle, with several magazines, a rocket launcher and a fully charged spartan laser. She placed the sniper on her back mag-lock and carried the other two up to the wall. After placing the spartan laser to one side she then readied the rocket launcher on her shoulder ready for action.


End file.
